1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a non-contact feeder system, and more particularly, to a non-contact feeder system in which a phase and a direction of an AC current of a feeding cable are controlled or a connection structure of the feeding cable is improved, thereby decreasing a space to mount the non-contact feeder system and improving an efficiency of a power supply.
2. Description of the Related Art
To carry products or determine positions of the products on a production line or a distribution system, a moving system having a moving object, such as a carrier, is generally used. To supply an electrical power to the moving object and operate the moving object, a power cable has been connected to the moving object, which causes noise and dust because the power cable is dragged together with the moving object. Further, the power cable may be damaged or cut because the power cable is repeatedly bent while being dragged.
To solve the above problem, a non-contact feeder system supplies the electrical power to a moving object without contacting a power cable to the moving object. In the non-contact feeder system, a feeding cable, through which an AC current flows, is prepared along a moving direction of the moving object, and an induced current is generated from a magnetic field formed around the AC current flowing through the feeding cable and is supplied to the moving object.
As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional non-contact feeder system comprises an AC power supply 121 to supply an AC current, a parallel round cable 111 arranged along a moving direction of a moving object 160, which moves back and forth with respect to the parallel round cable 111, and a pick-up part 131 moving together with the moving object 160 and inducing an induced current from a magnetic field formed around an AC current flowing through the parallel round cable 111.
As an electrical capacity required for the moving object 160 increases, as shown in FIG. 2, a non-contact feeder system having two AC power supplies 121 and 122 and two parallel round cables 111 and 112 connected to corresponding ones of the AC power supplies 121 and 122 has been used to supply an electrical power to the moving object 160.
However, in the conventional non-contact feeder system, if AC currents are supplied to the two parallel round cables 111 and 112 by using the two AC power supplies 121 and 122, the pick-up parts 131 and 132 covering each of the parallel round cables 111 and 112 should be spaced apart from each other at a predetermined interval “d” as shown in FIG. 3. This is required because each of the AC power supplies 121 and 122 is separately controlled and a phase and a direction of an AC current supplied from each of the AC power supplies 121 and 122 to each of the corresponding parallel round cables 111 and 112 are separately determined. Thus, a direction of a magnetic field formed around one of the parallel round cables 111 and 112 is formed independently from the other one of the parallel round cables 111 and 112. If each AC current has a direction as shown in FIG. 3, the magnetic fields formed around the parallel round cables 111 and 112 destructively interfere with each other, thereby decreasing an efficiency of the induced current.
Thus, in the conventional non-contact feeder system, if more than two parallel round cables 111 and 112 are prepared to supply the AC currents from more than two AC power supplies 121 and 122 to the moving object, the parallel round cables 111 and 112 should be spaced apart from each other at predetermined intervals, thereby decreasing the efficiency of the induced current.